Unlocking the Future of Business with Autonomous Finance

In today’s rapidly evolving business environment, the finance function is undergoing a profound digital transformation. So profound, it might even be keeping CFOs awake at night. Some of the top concerns include the need to identify and implement processes and technology to drive autonomous finance and the need to acquire and retain key talent for the future.  

Heading into 2024, CFOs and Directors of Finance have their work cut out for them as they respond to the impact of economic and geopolitical turbulence on growth.  According to Gartner’s Guide for CFOs on Achieving Autonomous Finance, over the past 18 months, economic turbulence led 65% of companies in the S&P 1200 to take action to reduce costs, and 12% announced significant workforce cuts.  

It’s not just about automation

The same report also cited that the #1 focus for CFOs will be the transformation of finance with 81% of CFOs anticipating increasing technology investment. That investment, which is necessary for survival, will be geared towards autonomous finance.

An autonomous finance function is capable of delivering augmented real-time and predictive insights, effortless compliance and greater flexibility in financial strategy. But it relies on self-learning software agents, and CFOs need a robust technology roadmap and a new mindset to effect this transformation.

According to the Guide, sixty-four percent of CFOs believe autonomous finance will become a reality within the next six years. Through 2025, more than 40% of finance roles will either be new or significantly reshaped by finance technologies, which are quickly evolving from automated processes to autonomous capabilities.  

Leading the change

The journey toward autonomous finance requires fundamental changes. The Gartner Guide warns that Chief Financial Officers will not achieve autonomous finance without first shifting their mindsets to experiment broadly, trust the outputs of autonomous capabilities and lead by example in the transition.

Uli Erxleben, CEO Hypatos, is keenly aware of the mindset barriers against autonomous finance which include the fear of costly failures with technology investments, fear that teams will not embrace the technology, and fear of losing control.  

In a recent interview on SAP BrandVoice on Forbes.com, Erxleben addressed the fears around generative AI in autonomous finance.  

“Almost every customer asks how we ensure that AI is not learning the wrong things,” Erxleben explained. “They fear not being able to control what AI learns, how it learns and what the outcome of this learning might be.” To alleviate feelings of fear and anxiety, Erxleben says it is important to understand that this new wave of AI relies on generative models that are able to generate new outputs from existing inputs. Third-wave AI recognizes types of activity on its own and then connects the dots for the human user. It perceives, reasons and communicates.  

The workforce is evolving

Erxleben’s advice to financial professionals is to remember that AI is very powerful, but it’s also fun. It doesn’t require a big investment; just think of a use case and get AI to solve it. He recommends that finance leaders take time to learn how the technology can help the company and how it will impact the workforce.  

There is no doubt that AI will affect the next generation’s workforce. A report by the World Economic Forum predicted that 85 million jobs will be replaced by AI by 2025, while AI could potentially generate 97 million new roles. 

Erxleben sees this is an opportunity for companies to think about using talent differently. Recruiters should learn to make accounting jobs more attractive by highlighting the exciting use of new technology and the chance to solve problems in a creative way. “AI should be positioned as the accountant’s assistant,” he said.

Reaping the benefits

Companies that want to become transformational leaders in finance must learn to embrace concepts such as autonomous finance. They must take an active role in assessing current ways of working, looking for processes that are outdated and playing a strategic role in driving the finance function forward with the latest digital technologies to better support and streamline business. 

Once they do adopt autonomous finance functions such as those provided by Hypatos, companies will quickly find that they deliver valuable insights to decision makers, provide innovative ways to use analytic resources and connect business problems to the data to help inform better decisions. The AI Agents provided by Hypatos not only process the mundane tasks, but also manage complex tasks that require deep domain expertise too, such as accounts payables accounting coding, line-level PO to Invoice Matching, automated bank statement reconciliations, T&E fraud and compliance detection, or ESG Scope classification and energy consumption reporting.  

Hypatos is well positioned to help companies of all sizes in all industries on the journey.
Hypatos has earned recognition as a 'Representative Vendor' in the 2023 Gartner Market Guide for Accounts Payable Invoice Automation Solutions.  This acknowledgment highlights Hypatos' expertise in the global financial automation and B2B Finance SaaS sectors, demonstrating its commitment to enhancing secure payment capabilities for large multinational enterprises.

There are numerous benefits to implementing Hypatos’ Intelligent Document Processing solution: 

• The solution requires no manual configuration and training but allows ‘human in the loop’ validation when required
• The solution automatically learns from each action performed in the Hypatos application and any downstream system, such as an ERP system
• All critical financial documents such as invoices and payments are efficiently processed as part of an existing ERP or CRM workflow
• Documents are processed with an accuracy close to 100%, with human intervention only where decisions are required 
• Hundreds and thousands of documents processed consistently with high data quality, ensuring no backlogs
  
  

The Hypatos vision is to enable AI to run business operations, while humans make strategic decisions and design innovative solutions.  

With AI delivering superior and timely throughput of document processing, your company can receive payments sooner, pay for goods on time, manage and reimburse travel expenses accurately, and avoid ESG and other penalties.  All of this helps to optimize operations and enables greater profitability and growth as you transform into a world class digital finance organization. 

Start your journey to autonomous finance today.  

Register now for our webinar series where we will discuss how you can effectively transform your finance organization and share examples from customers who are reaping the benefits of working with Hypatos.